Olympics: Ted Ligety, Lauryn Williams Make History

Wednesday

Feb 19, 2014 at 12:01 AMFeb 19, 2014 at 10:30 PM

Ted Ligety has finally filled the void in his resume. The most dominant giant slalom skier for most of the last decade easily won the event Wednesday at the Winter Olympics, becoming the first American man to claim two ...

TV Guide

Ted Ligety has finally filled the void in his resume. The most dominant giant slalom skier for most of the last decade easily won the event Wednesday at the Winter Olympics, becoming the first American man to claim two Olympic gold medals in Alpine skiing. The 411 on the 12 new Winter Olympic events Ligety, a four-time World Cup season champ and two-time world champ in the giant slalom, had a comfortable 0.93-second lead after the first run and won with a two-run combined time of 2:45.29. Frenchmen Steve Missillier and Alexis Pinturault were 0.48 seconds and 0.64 behind, respectively.The only other American Alpine skier to have won two Olympic golds is Andrea Mead Lawrence, who took the women's slalom and giant slalom in 1952. Ligety, who nabbed a surprise gold in the combined in 2006, is also the first American man to win the Olympic giant slalom.Bode Miller, the 2002 silver medalist, tweaked his surgically repaired left knee and finished 20th. He later pulled out of Saturday's slalom, meaning this was likely the final Olympic race of his career.The U.S. also had a banner day in women's bobsled, taking two spots on the podium, second (3:50.71) and third (3:51.61) behind Canada (3:50.61), for the first time. Lauryn Williams, who was second with Elana Meyers, became the fifth person to medal at both the Summer and Winter Olympics. The track star won a gold in the London Olympics, along with a silver in Athens, and could have become the second athlete to win gold at both versions of the Games. Williams and Meyers were in the lead after Tuesday's first two runs, but Canada's Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse, the defending champs, beat them by a tenth, and were a full second ahead of bronze medalists Jamie Greubel and Aja Evans. Lolo Jones and Jazmine Fenlator were 11th.Olympic hotties: Who's sizzling beneath the parka?Norway's Ole Einar Bjoerndalen became the most decorated Winter Olympian of all time after he picked up his 13th medal and eighth gold in the inaugural biathlon mixed relay in 1:09:17.0 over the Czech Republic (1:09:49.6) and Italy (1:10:15.2). He has a chance to extend that record in Saturday's 4x7.5-kilometer relay. Russia's Vic Wild, who was born and raised in America, won the inaugural snowboard parallel giant slalom over Swiss Nevin Galmarini and Slovak Zan Kosir. Minutes earlier, Wild's wife, Alena Zavarzina of Russia, won the bronze in the women's event behind gold medalist Patrizia Kummer of Switzerland and silver medalist Tomoka Takeuchi of Japan.Norway also took the women's team sprint classic (16:04.05) over Finland (16:13.14) and Sweden 916:23.82). Finland (23:14.89) won the men's equivalent, beating Russia (23:15.86) and Sweden (23:30.01).In the women's 5,000 meters, Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic won in 6:51.54, with Dutchwomen Ireen Wuest (6:54.28) and Carien Kleibeuker (6:55.66) in second and third. Olympic stars to watch In men's hockey, the United States beat the Czech Republic 5-2 to set up a semifinal with Canada, which beat Latvia 2-1. Sweden, which shut out Slovenia 5-0, will meet Finland in the other semi after the Finns upset Russia 3-1. Defending champ Yuna Kim topped the ladies' figure skating short skate with a 74.92, edging out Russian teen Adelina Sotnikova (74.64) and Italy's Carolina Kostner (74.12). Yulia Lipnitskaya, who helped Russia to a gold in the team event, fell on a triple flip and is in fifth (65.23), sandwiched between Americans Gracie Gold (68.63) and Ashley Wagner (65.21). Their teammate, Polina Edmunds, is seventh (61.04). Vancouver silver medalist Mao Asada of Japan fell on a triple Axel to land in 16th place (55.51). What did you think of Day 12?

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